Reviews by Knapp85:

This poured out looking really nice in my opinion. The beer is a very deep brown color with a great looking creamy tan head on top that leaves a killer lacing on the glass as well as a solid retention. The smell of the beer is lightly roasted with a few other earthy notes. The taste of the beer is subtle across the board with some chocolate, roasted malt and cream. There is also a solid amount of bitterness in the finish too. The mouthfeel is creamy, moderate carbonation and very drinkable. Overall it's a good brew in my opinion. I've always beer creeped out by the Oyster Stout concept but each one I've tried has been impressively good. I would recommend this one to others.

More User Reviews:

Beautiful dark brown with auburn highlights, nice sweet chocolate and roasted malt nose, semi sweet roasted and bitter chocolate flavor, finishes more bitter and a little metallic than expected. Was hoping for some salinity due to its nature, but still a pretty good stout. Cheers!

Purchased on a trip to Toledo, OH. Pours an ink-black color in the middle with very faint hints of dark brown around the edges; tan head fades quick and doesn't leave much lacing, if any at all. Aroma is surprisingly full of sweet malts; roasty on one side with some apple-juice and apple skin sweetness on the other. Light soy sauce-like aromas also come out more and more as the beer warms up - perhaps from the salty, brine-like character that may be from the oyster shells. Initial taste is some char, dark chocolate malts, roasted, and quite smokey. A brine aftertaste arises, a bit salty and seasoned like a musty sea deck - sounds off-putting, but it actually paired quite well with the smokiness of the beer. The liquid smoke flavor hung around until the very end, and an almost chipotle-like spice came out; wasn't very strong, and I may have the spice wrong, but it was pretty tasty. Medium-thick body, a little on the low side of the carbonation scale.

My first "oyster" stout - it was actually very enjoyable. I didn't know what to expect, so I didn't go into this one with high hopes and I was pleasantly surprised. A unique but nice combo of some sea creature flavors, brine, toasted cocoa-like malts, smoke, and light spice - I'd definitely have this one again if offered.

In a pint glass the beer was black with a small tan head that left a bit of lace.
Roasted malt aroma, chocolate.
Chocolate and coffee taste. I think a hint of salt, but that may have been wistful thinking.
Smooth.

12oz can, dated 11/4/15. Pours transparent brown with a smaller sized tan head. Smells of mostly roasted malt and brine with some earthy hops and oats. The taste follows exactly with roasted malt, brine, hops, and oats. Moderately strong saltiness in the middle and mild but lingering bitterness in the finish. Above average body and lower carbonation. It's a pretty simple stout with an adjunct of oyster shells; it adds a noticeable brininess to the smell/taste which gives it some needed dimension. Pretty good overall.

Dark dark brown, under an equally dark khaki head, that stays, goes all loose and stays some more. Very thick film, collar and bands of fine sheeting.

Light roastyness and toast on the nose.

Smooth in the mouth. This is a tasty stout with dark bread, light chocolate and cafe au lait flourishes. Near 8% and all of it is well hidden. Very enjoyable and easy drinking stout. One of my favorite brews from 21st Amendment. Worth a try if you see 4 packs of this in your local.

Taste: Rich molasses, chocolate and dark fruit upfront - semi-sweet. After that is when it gets really special, with a finish that includes a roasted bite alongside nice salty and mineral layers from the oyster shells.

Feel: While it is somewhat full bodied, it is much lighter and silkier than I expected. Finish dries off nicely despite the initial sweet taste. The almost 8% abv is completely hidden.

Overall: This is my first Oyster Stout, so I have no exact comparisons. But in terms of the broader Stout category, this is first-rate stuff. This is also the best beer I have had from the solid, but not usually spectular, 21st Amendment.

The oyster stout poured out from a can. It was extremely dark in colour, yet had clarity to it and a reddish hue when held up to the light. Smelled of sweet malt. Clean. Had a rich taste of sweet almond, date, and molasses. Lingering mellow, roasty aftertaste.

Marooned on Hog Island opens to a sweet and slightly salty aroma mixed with more standard stout notes. The stout brings ash, black malt, coffee, tobacco, and chocolate malt, but these are mixed with a briny sweetness, the former from the oyster shells, and the latter adding strong fig, black cherry, blood orange, and even bits of tart raspberry fruit esters. There’s also bits of lemon and lime from the hops, and an underbelly of toast crust and thick brown breads. Added together, these aromas blend wonderfully, and while the stout isn’t as thick and mealy on the nose as could be expected, the unexpected sweet and briny overtones are enticing.

On the tongue, the beer contains stronger stout notes, with ash, tobacco, fresh-ground coffee, chocolate malt, and whole wheat toast crust mixing with caramel, toffee, brown sugar, vanilla, and touches of molasses to form a lovely stout base. Add to this a hint of brine from the oysters, and a selection of fig, prune, raisin, and date dark fruit esters, and the result is very nice. The aftertaste is a more ash-laden continuation of the main mouthful, with threads of sea salt lacing the ash, lingering on the tongue for a long time. Mouthfeel is medium, and carbonation is medium.

Overall, this is an excellent beer, the oyster notes blending well with the stout to emphasize it, rather than overwhelm it, and the stout itself being of obviously high quality, even without the oyster notes. It can tend to be a bit too sweet, and the ashy notes feel as if they needed a slight boost, but this is still very much worth trying.

Poured from a 12 oz. can into a Surly Darkness chalice. Canned on 11-19-2012.

Appearance: Pours pitch black with a moderate amount of bubbles. Solid three fingers of tan head with decent retention. Leaves a lot of lacing around the glass.

Smell: A dark and creamy aroma with a subtle spicing. Dark roasted malts with hints of chocolate and coffee beans as well as some burnt caramel, biscuit, toffee, yeast, and smoked malt. Some sweet molasses and hints of anise spicing. Has a subtle salty scent which is probably from the oysters added in. Also some hints of dark cherry, raisin, fig, and prunes. Hops are very subdued. A pretty decent aroma.

Taste: Roasty, creamy, and mildly salty like the aroma hints. Dark roasted malts with a taste of rich chocolate, coffee beans, cream, burnt caramel malt, toffee, biscuit, smoke, and yeast. A moderate sweet taste of molasses and some subtle spices including molasses. Undertones of dark fruits with notes of fig, raisin, prune, and dark cherry. The salty taste from the oysters is somewhat light but noticeable. A pretty solid taste.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a moderate amount of carbonation. Very creamy and moderately sweet and slick. Very smooth.

A: Dark, near black with a red tints and a half-a-fingernail slightly brown head.

S: Cream, mineral, smoke, burnt malt, creamy coffee.

T: Starts with sweet chocolate nibs, then dark bitter chocolate with a hint of smoke and coffee, followed by sweet grilled oyster, and it finishes with a slight bitterness and the taste of gritty oyster shell.

M: Medium, smooth, creamy, dry on the finish.

O: A very tasty beer with a slight hard edge of mineral bordering on metal. Balanced well, the sweetness does not overtake the beer. This is a great stout.

I'm almost beginning to think oyster stout should be its own style; then again, do we make a style out of every element put into a beer (in this case, a sub-style, since I've only seen oyster in stouts). Maybe when oyster becomes as commonly used as pumpkin. Regardless, 21A does a good job with the information, giving the entire backstory on the can. I also appreciate that they really do give credit where it's due as a collaborative effort with Hog Island Oyster co., being referenced in the info, in the description ("Stout brewed with Hog Island sweetwater oyster shells"), and in including the companies logo along with theirs on the side of the can. Kudos to class.

It's not quite a black brew, being appropriately dark for the style and allowing a deep brown hue through the thickness. They're not getting carried away by giving it the body of a Russian, and they shouldn't. The beer grows a nice, creamy light brown head nearly two fingers tall that retains itself for several minutes and fades to a foam, but never quite entirely. On the way down, it leaves a thick layer of lacing at the top and drops rings and spotting between to just past halfway down the glass. This is a beer with which I might be torn between 4.0 and 4.5, so it's also my first beer with a 4.25 appearance. It's the little things,
The aroma is very much to style with nothing off-putting. The few oyster stouts I've had tend toward a predictable saltiness and a metallic element one might expect, the best ones doing well to overcome them but still perhaps almost giving off those notes, or keeping them to a minimum. I think this is where it was a fantastic idea to use the shells, just giving this beer a bit of the overall effect without the weirdness that may accompany. Some might want a little more oyster, and I can understand that; it ends up being very subtle. But it's better than overdone, and it meshes well. In both the aroma and the flavor, I assume chocolate malts are used as I get that note with just a light accompanying sweetness that's not too much to blend well. The roasty element is also there. This beer is a bit earthy and, while it's not too sweet, it's also not charred or bitter. In fact, it's very well-rounded. It might have higher ratings if it were EXTREME or if it were heavier, but in fact it's got as much balance as I think it could, is well-rounded, and is not light but mild while still being flavorful. "Stout" doesn't mean "huge", and I think they nailed it. Again, the only thing is that some might expect just a bit more oyster.
The mouthfeel is good, on the less extreme side but plenty full-bodied with a nice thickness that isn't choking. It has just the right, low level of crispness that's enough to add some life, and the underlying smoothness is good. A little alcohol peeks out and seems to thin it toward the end of the sip, but doesn't do much damage.